Who's That Girl

WHO'S THAT GIRL: A higher education obsessed foodie who is documenting her life in the kitchen. I love to cook delicious, gourmet-style foods for those I love and always welcome a challenge in the kitchen.
With that challenge comes an impromptu nature. I tend to avoid following recipes to the exact, so you are not likely to find very many posted here. Being that I am a Libra and am learning to be free in the kitchen, the story always goes, "A pinch of this and a smattering of that!"
Thank you for visiting -- and happy reading!

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Sauteed Steak Meets Hollandaise-Smothered Poached Eggs

Its culinary mashup time.

This creation was born from indecisiveness. For dinner, I wanted a meaty steak with vegetables, but I also craved eggs Benedict.

So why not combine the two?

This dish is surprisingly easy, though it took quite a bit of time and coordination to pull off. I made the Hollandaise sauce from scratch, adding kosher salt, black pepper and a bit of cayenne along with the lemon juice.

Oops: I should have used butter instead of clarified butter. I love the taste of clarified butter, but it overwhelmed the flavor of the Hollandaise sauce. I also put too many squirts of lemon juice in the mix. The sauce tasted a bit sharp, not silky and smooth as I wanted. But it was still quite nice. For the steak, I seasoned it with salt and pepper and seared it on the stovetop in a cast iron skillet. It then went into the stove for about 10 minutes.

I absolutely love this method of cooking steaks, especially when there is not enough time for grilling. The method lends a nice richness to the steak and allows for a crusted trim. It is also quite swift, and easy on the cleanup.

Meanwhile, I prepared the spinach and mushroom, cooking them together, without seasoning, in a pot. I had never cooked mushrooms and spinach together in this way, but I was going for simplicity and figure, why not? I worried that the mushrooms would be mush, but they remained perfectly formed and nicely cooked through. I did go with baby bellas here. I don't imagine this would have gone over as well with white mushrooms or even shiitake mushrooms. As I was wrapping up the mushrooms and spinach, the steak had been cooling for about eight minutes. Perfect time to start poaching the eggs.

My darling kitchen companion watched in disbelief, eager to have her first bite.

It came together beautifully!

What a lovely marriage of flavors, and a gorgeous sight, too.

I was also impressed with the plating: steak first, topped with the spinach and mushrooms, then the poached eggs and a generous serving of the Hollandaise sauce.

This seems like one of those wonderful special occasion meals, perfect for impressing someone.